Headless Love Angel
by Artemis Day
Summary: Five times Jane Foster fell in love that failed spectacularly, and one that (just barely) worked out.


**A/N: I have always wanted to do one of these.**

* * *

Jane Foster is five years old and in kindergarten. Boys are yucky and gross and dumb, but she hasn't gotten the memo. His name is Billy Farrell. He has blond hair and blue eyes and he always wears a red baseball cap because his Daddy's favorite team is the Red Sox. Jane doesn't know anything about baseball, except that it makes her Daddy says words she is never ever supposed to say. That's what Mommy always tells her.

Jane really wants Billy to like her, but she isn't sure how to talk to him. Her dream is for them to get married and spend the rest of their lives staying up all night, watching the stars. Jane would tell him every constellation she knew and then they'd discover a bunch of new ones. They'd eat cookies and ice cream for dinner and there'd be no grown-ups around to stop them. When you're married, you don't have to live with your Mommy and Daddy anymore, so Jane wants to marry Billy as soon as possible.

Valentine's Day is just around the corner. Jane begs Mommy to make her special cupcakes, the chocolate ones with the rainbow sprinkles that she saves for Jane's birthday. Her Mommy laughs and pats her on the head, and offers not only to make them, but to let Jane help. Jane couldn't be happier.

When the day comes, Jane brings her store bought Valentines for the rest of her classmates- she wrote their names all by herself- and the cupcake for Billy. There is a note attached, it reads simply: FROM YOUR SECRET ADMIRER.

Jane doesn't know what a secret admirer is, but Mommy says that's what she should put, and helps her spell it right and draw a little smiley face underneath.

Billy is confused when he comes to class and sees the cupcake in his cubby with the rest of his Valentines, but he eats it anyway while Jane watches from the corner. She's so excited, she almost runs out before he finishes. When he's eaten every bite, she taps him on the shoulder.

"Hi Billy," she says. "Happy Valentine's Day! I'm your secret admirer!"

Billy looks at her with his mouth still full, and his friends standing all around, watching them.

"You gave me the cupcake?"

Jane nods. "That's right! I made it myself with my Mommy!"

And then, for reasons she can't fathom, all of Billy's friends start laughing.

"Haha, Billy's got a _girlfriend!_"

"That's lame! Billy ate a cupcake from his _girlfriend!_"

"Doesn't he know girls are gross?"

"No, I don't have a girlfriend!" Billy shouts at them in horror. He throws the cupcake wrapper to the ground along with Jane's note and stomps on them. Then he glares at her. "Stay away from me! You're gross, Jane!"

The other kids laugh louder, and Jane feels a horrible pain in her chest, like her heart is being ripped in half. With so many cruel eyes and fingers pointed at her, it's no wonder she bursts into tears and runs from the room.

When she gets home that afternoon, Jane cries even more in Mommy's arms and vows to never ever ever like a boy ever again.

* * *

Jane is a High School Sophomore, and one day, a tall young man with olive skin and shaggy black hair walks into her American History class. The teacher introduces him as Nicolas Kennedy, a new student from Los Angeles who will be joining their class, and asks that they please make him feel welcome. Jane's her heart pounds the second she meets his eyes. She can't stop thinking about him, sitting right behind her with his pencil scratching against paper, for the rest of the period.

By the time two weeks have passed, Jane knows she has it bad.

She brings it up to her best friend, Alison Teggy, that weekend, when they are attending a Saturday showing at the movies like they do every week. Alison, who's used to Jane going on about astronomy and the application of physics thereof, is pleasantly surprised at the change of topic. It helps that this is something she actually understands.

"Look, there is no point beating around the bush," she says. "You need to ask him out, and you need to do it now before someone else snatches him up. I don't think I need to you that a cute guy like that is going to get a lot of attention. You should probably start wearing some make-up too."

Jane doesn't listen to the last part (she does wear make-up, thank you, she just doesn't cake it on like some girls do), but the first part is a great idea, assuming Jane can work up the courage.

She spends her study periods in the library, reading science textbooks and books on astrophysics. Sometimes she goes for something else, like a big Norse Mythology book that reminds her of the one her godfather, Erik Selvig, has at his house. Even though they're kind of weird, she really likes the stories about Loki. Thor is a cool character too.

It's when she's walking by the section that carries this book that she suddenly comes face to face with Nicolas. As she's working off an enormous blush, Nicolas looks at her casually.

"Hey, Jane, how are you doing?"

Jane straightens out, brushing her blouse off even though it's spotless. She coughs to clear her throat.

"I'm good, just browsing."

He hums and pulls a thin book of the shelf, leafs through it, and puts back.

"Cool, you looking forward to the weekend?"

"Oh yeah," Jane says, trying her damnedest not to sound ridiculously awkward as the conversation veers into risky territory. "Really excited. It's all my friends can talk about."

"Right... I've seen you with that one girl. Alison, was it?"

"That's her," Jane says. "She always gets crazy about Friday nights out. It's kind of annoying, but I love her enough that I don't mind."

Nicolas's eyes on her seem to change, and she can't pinpoint exactly what it is that's different. His eyebrows shoot up, and he stiffens, and he purses his lips like he's scrutinizing her.

"Oh," he says somewhat sheepishly. "I didn't know it was like _that_ with you guys."

Jane blinks, brow furrowed. "Like what?"

He shakes his head. "Nothing, it's okay."

Then the bell rings and he's gone with a hurried goodbye. Jane stares after him, gaping, the unasked question hanging from her lips. Her thoughts are still in a cloud, and she doesn't understand until she's at home that night, when it suddenly comes to her exactly what she said to him. She smacks her head with her fist a few times, cursing her stupid mouth.

She's still humiliated a week later, because Alison refuses to stop laughing about it.

* * *

Jane's final year of college is relatively easy. Thanks to constant studying- at the low, low price of her social life- she's gotten all her important credits under her belt and intends to take it easy from now, to the grueling horror that is to be Graduate School. She takes a course in First-Aid for the hell of it, and because that's the sort of thing that's going to come in handy someday. It's the middle of March and they've just covered CPR when Cary Lemon asks her on a date.

Cary is a science student like her, and he's the first guy Jane has dated who isn't ridiculously tall. That's not really saying much, since Jane is shorter than pretty much everyone she knows over the age of 13. Cary, while boyishly handsome and noticeably muscular underneath those skin tight t-shirts he's so fond of, is only around 5'6. It's still almost half a head taller than her anyway.

Somewhere amid all her homework and science projects, Jane has managed to keep up steady flirting with Cary, and it's only now paying off after a year and a half of knowing him. She supposes that's a good thing. All the other times she's tried to date, it's ended badly. Jane thinks maybe she shouldn't rush into things the way some of her friends do. She should start taking after the ones who don't. A steady relationship would mean far more to her than a one night stand. She had one of those last year and it wasn't nearly as much fun as her friends made it out to be. Maybe it's just her.

With Cary, Jane actually thinks she might have something for once. He's a chemistry student and she's in physics, but they know enough about each other's fields that they can converse all throughout their walk to the indoor pool at the Town Center. They don't go in for a long time, too wrapped up in a conversation about quantum equations that is probably the reason the middle aged couple beside them is staring like they're a pair of aliens. Jane's so involved that she doesn't even take the time to admire how great Cary looks with his shirt off.

Eventually, Cary decides he'd like to go for a swim, and Jane excuses herself to the bathroom while he takes to the diving board. She's gone for five minutes. When she comes back, the first thing Jane hears is a voice calling for someone to dial 911. The first thing she sees is Cary's bright purple swim trunks, as he floats on his stomach in the middle of the pool, unmoving.

They fish him out, and Jane shoves people out of the way to get to him. She wonders where the hell the lifeguard is right now and gets down beside Cary. She opens his mouth, his lips are turning blue. With all her lessons pounding in her ears, Jane gently mounts him and places the heel of her hand on Cary's chest. She does the necessary 30 compressions and then gives him two breaths, it does nothing. Jane repeats the process a second time, and again gets no results. By the fourth time, she's starting to feel a horrible chill. What if she's too late?

And where is the damn ambulance?

She goes to give him another two breaths. She gets out one.

Cary gags and starts flailing.

The water in his lungs comes out, along with what he ate for breakfast this morning.

Right into Jane's mouth.

Many screams, cries of relief from Cary's mother, and swigs of mouth wash for Jane later, they go home in separate cars. It's left unsaid, but the rest of their date is cancelled. Even though Jane is happy she saved a human life, it's horribly awkward between her and Cary the next time they see each other, and Jane thinks that's the premature end to whatever they might have had. It's hard to kiss a guy who once threw up in your mouth.

Years later, when Jane looks back, she thinks maybe it was for the best that she never seriously dated Cary. There's only a small chance it would have gotten that far, but really-

Jane _Lemon?_

* * *

As time goes on and her worldview matures, Jane finds herself able to laugh at all those times her love life failed her.

She doesn't think she can ever laugh about Donald Blake.

Donald is her longest relationship yet. She's been with him for two and a half years, and has known he loves his work more than her for one. She never confronted him about it, because hey, she's busy too. Really, trying to prove the existence of other worlds and getting laughed at by everyone in the scientific community and their mother is hard work. She fully understands the workload a medical doctor must face.

It'd still be nice if she could see him for longer than five minutes at a time once a week. She'd also like it if he could remember her birthday.

She goes to his house and finds him knee deep in patient reports, with another pile thicker than her thigh on the desk.

"Jane?" He sounds way too surprised to see her. "What are you- I'm sorry, but I kind of have a lot of work to do. Is something wrong?"

Jane almost laughs.

"There's a lot wrong, Donald," she says. She takes a seat on the other side of his desk without asking. She takes a deep breath to calm herself. If she doesn't get all of this out now, she doesn't think she ever will. "I need to know where we're going, you and me. Is our relationship really worth anything to you?"

Donald gawks at her. He laughs nervously, and Jane doesn't like it. It's the kind of laugh he uses when one of his younger patients wakes up from a bad dream and wants comfort. He's babying her.

"Jane, sweetie, now isn't the time for this," he says. "You know that I love you. I'm busy right now, but whatever this is, I promise I'll make it up to you."

"You mean like on my birthday?"

He lights up. "Absolutely! Your birthday, we'll go anywhere you like and I'll be all yours the whole day. No work, no patients, no nothing. How's that sound?"

"It sounds great!" Jane says with false cheer that nonetheless fools him. Time to drop the bomb. "It would be really great if my birthday wasn't yesterday."

He deflates like an over inflated balloon. It's comical, the way his face falls and he looks like he's been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He starts to stutter, he's not very good under pressure unless said pressure involves a life saving operation. When it's just the two of them, he's a mess, and Jane can't take it anymore. She raises a hand, stopping him in his tracks.

"That's enough," she says softly, eyes closed. She opens them again and feels the tears she's been trying so hard to hold in welling up. "I mean it, that's enough."

"Jane-"

"No, Donald. Listen, you're a great guy and an amazing doctor. You love your job more than anything else, and that's fine. I just can't be with someone like that."

She gets to her feet, not tearing her eyes from his yet. He raises a hand slowly, but stops short of speaking. She can sense the apology on his lips, and whether it's for missing her birthday, or everything else, or both, she doesn't know. It doesn't matter.

"Goodbye, Donald," she says, walking to the door. "I'll leave your house key on the kitchen table."

Jane gets back to her place and shuts the phone off in case he tries to call. She stays up all night drawing a map of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor and the surrounding stars. It occurs to her halfway through that most women spend the night after a break up crying, eating ice cream and watching bad romance films.

Well, she _does_ have a giant tub of rocky road on the table. It doesn't help much.

* * *

Jane keeps in touch with Alison as much as she can, even though they haven't met face to face in nearly five years. Last she checked, Alison had dumped her policeman boyfriend and was seeing a man in banking. Apparently, he's well off. He's no Tony Stark or anything like that, but he does have a luxury car and a beach house in Maui. Alison calls it an upgrade, and advises Jane to do the same, to go for someone better than Donald. Jane doesn't know how much better you could get than a handsome, successful and well loved doctor.

Then, 'better' came in the form of the Norse God of Thunder and Jane doesn't know how she's going to explain _that_ one.

Thor fell into Jane's life. Literally. He fell in front of her RV in the middle of a storm, was then hit by said RV and almost knocked out, and then she managed to do the exact same thing to him the very next day. She swore to him that she wasn't doing it on purpose.

Perhaps it was an omen of sorts, because Jane was attracted to Thor right away, even when she thought he was crazy and delusional. He was still the sweetest man she'd ever met. When it turned out he really was the actual God of Thunder, that was… different. And unexpected. And even a little scary.

Thor went back to his home on Asgard and Jane was left to pick up the pieces, because he never came back when he said he would. He left her with a kiss and nothing else. It makes sense, she supposes, because he's a God and they only knew each other for three days. But what an adventurous and insane three days they were.

When she sees Thor again, two years have passed. In that time, Jane has received funding from SHIELD the likes of which she never imagined, and then received even more money from _the_ Tony Stark, who also one day decided she and one Dr. Bruce Banner were his new best friends and had to work with him on a bunch of other projects he started for fun. Jane finds herself in the center of SHIELD and their Avengers initiative, close friends with two of them and rekindling a relationship with one.

It's a shame that last one isn't meant to last.

It takes several months of flat denial for Jane to come to terms with the truth. Whenever she kisses Thor, it feels uniform and more work than pleasure. She's his girlfriend, and so they should be going on dates and making out. Not because she wants to, but because that what they're supposed to do. If she's honest with herself, she doesn't really _want_ to anymore.

It's worse now, because Thor is an amazing man, even without the whole super powered God thing. He's gorgeous and loving and treats her like a Queen. If this continues, he probably will propose to her at some point, and try to make her an actual Queen. There are many reasons why Jane is dreading that day, the biggest one being… well, she just doesn't feel that way about him anymore.

She doesn't know how to tell him. She starts avoiding him everywhere, and she feels everyone's eyes on her, like they all know and are too polite to say anything. Except for Tony. Tony comes to her little corner of the lab one day and pats her comfortingly on the shoulder, telling her that he knows some _great_ places to go for some _great_ rebound sex. He's only ever gone to pick up women, but he thinks she could probably find some guys there too. Bruce drags him away before he can give her addresses, and Jane is eternally grateful.

The day does come, as she always knew it would. It's too soon, though, in her opinion; any day is too soon. She finds Thor in the cafeteria, which is fully stocked with expensive snacks and chocolates and has a full kitchen staff made up of various gourmet chefs Tony had flown in from all around the world. Thor is eating a box of pop tarts.

Jane stifles a laugh at how happy he looks, munching away and getting jelly all over his lips. She looks away quickly. Now is not the time to find him cute or endearing, it'll just make what she's about to do even harder.

Unlike the time with Donald Blake, Jane gets right to the point.

"Thor, we need to talk," she says, the classic break up line flying right over Thor's head. He only knows it's something serious from intensity of her expression. Then he puts down the uneaten half of his pop tart and listens.

Jane goes on and on for longer than she knows, but it's probably no more than two minutes. She tells him how great everything was when they first met, and how much she wishes it could have lasted, and how she thinks maybe if they hadn't spent so much time apart, _maybe_ things could have been different, and how she's so sorry that she has to do this, but continuing on the way they have is just going to hurt them both in the long run.

And she keeps going and going and she can't stop herself, even as Thor's smile disappears and he's giving her this blank face and tiny frown that she cannot read. When she finally runs out of things to say, Jane realizes she hasn't taken a breath since she started. She inhales deeply, filling her lungs until her chest hurts. Thor hasn't said a word, it does nothing for Jane's nerves.

"And you're certain of this?" he asks after far, far too long.

Jane fights to maintain eye contact. He doesn't look angry or upset or anything at all. He's acting like she's an enemy he's facing down on the battlefield. Stay strong and show no fear is his creed. That's fine, Jane can play that game.

"I am," she says solemnly, firmly. "I'm sorry, Thor."

She's already apologized to him too many times, but it's all she can think to say. Everything else dies in her throat. She can't stop looking away from those unnaturally blue eyes of his, waiting for something, anything, to be said.

Thor sighs and smiles softly.

"Thank you for telling me," he says. "I've been feeling similarly, but I didn't know how to bring it up without hurting you."

Jane stares at him, his honest admission hanging in the air. He's starting to look nervous, now he's the one anxiously awaiting a reply. Jane can find no words, so instead, she laughs.

She laughs until Thor, very confused and taken aback, begins to laugh with her. She laughs until it hurts and then tells Thor how relieved she is and how much she hopes they can still be friends. Thor agrees.

It all come crashing down that night in bed, and Jane cries silently over what she's just done and what could have been. It's only when she's spent all her tears that she feels relieved again, and knows it was for the best. The pain is already receding. The next morning, she decides it might be good to take a break from her hectic life at the newly dubbed 'Avengers Tower.' She has all she needs to continue her research and Tony and Bruce make it clear that she can call them at any hour if she needs help or has a breakthrough. Tony also tries again to direct her to the nearest singles bar, and again, Bruce clamps a hand over his mouth and tells her to run.

With a truckload of professional equipment that's all been given the patented 'Tony Stark Treatment', Jane returns to Puente Antiguo. She finds it mostly rebuilt and quiet as ever. Erik is taking a long vacation of his own in Sweden, and Darcy's internship has long since ended. Jane is alone and she doesn't mind at all. The dry heat is familiar and comforting to her. She never thought she could miss this place so much.

It comes to her about a week in that her romance with a mythical God of legend was actually the least eventful of any relationship she's ever had, not just the smoothest ending. Jane laughs hysterically as she tries and fails several times to reorganize her star charts. Eventually, she has to give up and go lay down in bed. She can deal with it in the morning when she's a little less caffeinated.

And though she knows she promised to remain friends with Thor, she doubts she's going to see him again for a while. It's not like, what with saving the world several times a month and dealing with life back in his home world, he's ever going to have time or reason to visit some random ex-girlfriend of his.

Two weeks later, Thor is at her door. At his side is his sullen, angry, defeated younger brother.

* * *

Jane walks into the kitchen with her hand raised to shield her eyes. Through the window above the sink, hard sunlight shines on the room and gives Jane a splitting headache. She tells herself that today is the day she gets off her ass and buys curtains, knowing that she'll say the exact same thing tomorrow morning. The coffee machine is already on, and the mere thought of a steaming hot cup soothes her. Tentatively, she touches the handle. She is relieved to find it hot, which means that either Loki only just made it, or he's decided to be nice for once and make her a fresh pot after finishing his own.

She sees him in the corner, drinking from her favorite mug and looking down his nose at her. She puts her money on the former.

"Good morning," she says. She keeps her voice pleasant because she is in no way in the mood to fight with him right now.

He says nothing, and Jane's feelings aren't hurt. She drinks down her coffee and fills another cup. She takes every last drop at the risk of overflowing, only because she loves the look on his face when he misses out on the last cupful.

Loki had been with her for close to three months. Thor dropped him off on her doorstep, with orders from his father, Odin himself, that Loki was to stay with her until further notice. Naturally, Jane heavily objected, and her yelling was heard all the way across the street (that's no exaggeration, she got phone calls and everything). Thor spent hours reassuring her that Loki was powerless. The All-Father had stripped him completely of his magic, so that Loki was no more a threat than a normal human. Jane could've argued against that until the sun went down, but Thor was quick to excuse himself by noon. He left as she screamed at him to stay and listen to her. Throughout all of this, Loki didn't say a single word.

Apparently, this so-called All-Father thought that Jane would be a good influence on Loki, who would only get his powers back when he 'proved himself worthy.' Jane didn't have a clue what they thought she could do for him. Two days in, and she was positive that Loki would never be worthy. Not in her lifetime.

Thor hadn't returned since and Jane couldn't get in touch with Tony thanks to the ridiculously long honeymoon him and Pepper were on (six months?! Who the hell needs six months?! Damn rich people…). Jane had no choice but to give in, resigning herself to taking care of a psychotic former God who ate more than ten men combined and whose default expression appeared to be 'death glare.'

Three months later, Jane hadn't made much progress, excepting that he would answer her in complete sentences when she asked him something, and he stopped walking around her lab while she was working and actually refilled her coffee for her once or twice. Jane doesn't know what to make of that.

"I'm making waffles for breakfast," she says as she opens the fridge, which is full to bursting with the fancy food Tony constantly sends her. "I'm guessing you'll want a whole box like usual."

"I hate those things," he says bitterly. "They are like cardboard. You mortals have awful taste to stomach such drek."

Jane puffs out her cheeks and glares at him over her eyebrows. He isn't looking at her, and wouldn't be affected if he was. Jane ignores him again and pulls out the box. It takes her 45 minutes to make all 10 waffles. A better toaster is also on her list of things to buy that she never will. Loki eats them all despite his complaints, but he makes sure to look as unhappy about it as possible. Jane refuses to look at him as she eats her own breakfast. Sitting at the table with him becomes less and less awkward the longer he's around, but she still misses the peace of eating by herself. At least she still has her lab.

"I'm going to be working all day, so you'll have to stay here and entertain yourself."

"Assuming that's possible…" Loki mutters.

Jane doesn't respond, that's exactly what he wants. It goes like this every morning: Jane tries to be nice, Loki doesn't bother being polite, Jane gets offended, they start shouting, Jane locks herself in the lab until nightfall and the next morning, they do it all again.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

It gets to her a little bit more every time. Jane gets angrier and angrier, as other indiscernible emotions fill her. When Loki's bright green eyes stare daggers into hers, Jane gives just as good, and she thinks Loki knows it, though he refuses to acknowledge it. Without his powers and delusions of grandeur, all Jane can see is a child angry at the world. She pities him more than she ever feared him. She thinks, at first, that pity is the strange emotion fighting with him invokes in her. It quickly becomes clear that's not the case. It's something else that she can't pinpoint, and it's starting to freak her out a little.

She puts her dish in the sink to wash later and leaves for her lab down the street. She doesn't say goodbye to him, just waves at the TV and bookcase and locks the door on her way out. Maybe a couple of hours alone with a wall full of stars and constellations will clear her head.

Hours pass and the sun starts to set. Jane looks up from her work desk at the clock and is shocked at how much time has gone by. She was supposed to start getting ready to leave twenty minutes ago. Cursing under her breath, she scrambles to gather everything together. She stacks her notebooks and places her pens back in their case. She finishes copying down the equations on the blackboard and then erases and cleans it. The clock ticks on and Jane hurries faster. She throws her notebooks into the beat up old backpack she's been using since her college days, and grabs her jacket out from the middle of a tower of old mechanical parts she'd made this morning in an attempt to tidy up a little. Jane pauses to brush off some dust, not aware that the pile of metal is tilting dangerously close until it's about to topple over on her head.

Jane looks up, gasps.

Warm hands wrap around her wrists and then her waist. She's pulled into a hard chest and watches in a funny kind of daze as the scrap metal falls all over her clean floor and rolls off in different directions. Her first thought is that it's going to take days to find it all again. Then she looks up, and it only mildly surprised to see green eyes staring back at her.

"Are you in the habit of standing around and gawking at danger like the soft headed?" Loki asks.

Jane scowls, struggling to break free of his grip to no avail. Even when mortal, Loki is incredibly strong.

"Danger?" she says with a chuckle. "As worst, I'd have gotten a few scratches and maybe some bleeding. That stuff isn't that heavy."

Loki purses his lips, so tight, they disappear from sight.

"What are you even doing here?" Jane demands, squirming against him. "And would you _please_ let go of me?"

Loki rolls his eyes, but acquiesces. Jane takes uneven steps forward, putting a good amount of distance between them.

"I asked you a question," she says in a hard tone of voice. "You're not supposed to leave my place alone, you know."

"I'm not alone."

Jane raises an eyebrow. Loki smirks.

"I'm here with you."

In spite of herself, Jane barks a laugh. "Really? That's the best you can do? This is serious, have you been following me around?"

"Only when you are late coming home."

The laughter fades, and a strange feeling overcomes Jane. That is not an answer she expected, not at all. Loki doesn't appear shocked or startled by his admission, but she knows from experience that he's a tremendously good actor. For all she knows, he's freaking out worse than her right now.

"Are you saying you were worried about me?"

Loki's eyes flick away, for the barest of seconds, but Jane still catches it. She files it away for later, in case this encounter ends with something she can lord over him in the coming days. Maybe it's childish, but it's not like he's any better.

"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" he says cruelly. He crosses his arms over his chest. "Must as it pains me to admit, you are all the company I have for the time being. It would do me no good if something happened to you. Believe me, under any other circumstances, I would care no more for you than a fly on the wall."

Jane keeps her face even, as she rages behind the mask of indifference. There are so many rebuttals forming in her brain, and none of them sound particularly good. She keeps looking into his eyes, giving off vibes of confidence and surety, so that he might not see how angry she is for a little while longer. His gaze leaves hers for another millisecond, and like a wave crashing over her, Jane's anger leaves her, and that indescribable emotion swells up. It's strong and overwhelms her, making her feel truly brave, and quite possibly stupid.

Her mouth curls into a smile.

"You're lying."

He frowns.

"I wouldn't lie about this."

"But you did."

His eyebrows knit together in an ugly scowl that barely detracts from his handsome face.

"I am the Master of Lies, Jane Foster," he says. "What makes you think you see through me so easily?"

To his clear surprise, Jane shakes her head. "I can't. I wish I could, but I can't even figure out _myself_ lately, much less you."

She steps closer. He doesn't move. She hasn't got a clue what is keeping her moving towards him and not away.

"But I hope I do understand you, someday," she says.

For the first time, Loki smiles. It's a genuine smile too, but with a sinister edge to it. Jane's stomach flips, and not unpleasantly.

"Really?" Loki says, like it's a challenge. "You'll have to spend many years with me first."

Jane shrugs, and her smile becomes a grin she has no hope of wiping off her face.

"Well, I've been stuck with you this long. What's a little longer?"

It's around this time Jane realizes she never stopped moving after that first step. She's barely an inch from him now. If she looks straight ahead, she'll see nothing but the expanse of his chest. She's struck by the memory of walking in on him after his shower a week ago, when she'd received confirmation of something she'd suspected all along: Loki may be no Thor, but he's still very well muscled. She kind of wishes he wasn't wearing a shirt today so she could see again.

She's aware of his arms snaking around her waist, looser than before, but no less unbreakable. She looks up, and he's not smiling anymore. He has an unreadable expression, his eyes are alight in a way she's never seen before. It thrills her to her toes. Whatever high she's on right now, Jane doesn't want to wait for it to end. Because once she's back to her senses, she won't be able to reach up as far as she can and pull Loki's head down and drag his lips to hers, like she's doing right now.

She kisses him slowly, waiting for him to respond and she is not disappointed. Loki takes control, biting her lip to make her gasp, then plunging his tongue into her mouth. Jane feels herself grow faint, and Loki tightens his hold in case she can't hold herself up anymore.

Jane puts it all into the kiss, both in body and in mind. She doesn't want to think about tomorrow yet, or even a few minutes from now when they will have to stop. She doesn't want to worry about how insane this is and how insane _she_ must be to have feelings for _Loki_ of all people. She doesn't want to try and fathom the sheer impossibility that he might feel the same way. She doesn't want to worry about what lies in store for them, because it's not like she's ever had a successful relationship with anyone who _didn't_ have a history as a super villain. What makes her think this could ever work?

As far as Jane is concerned, all that and everything else can wait. She melts into Loki's arms and lets his kiss cloud her mind completely. She smiles against his lips, and he returns it.

She has a good feeling about this one.


End file.
